12 minute read
Touching from a distance
TOUCHING FROM A DISTANCE Catching up with Orlando’s music community
BY MATTHEW MOYER T here are days where I don’t even listen to music now. Sometimes it doesn’t sound the same, doesn’t feel the same. But deep down I know as a certainty that music still has an incredibly important place in our hearts and in our heads, and I respect musicians who are able and willing to practice their craft at this point in time wholeheartedly. Even with venues closed and every event canceled for the foreseeable future and a constant buzz of dread and bad news, there is a slowly building pulse of activity (all online, for safety and social distancing’s sake) amongst our local music community. These are a few that happened last week, and they’re all beautiful attempts at connection in their own way.
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Glass Hive makes music for a peaceful sleep
Longtime local musician Brian Phillips (Discovery of Magnetic North, Ootheca) managed to create his most emotionally stirring work yet as a way of keeping it together during these troubled times. Eschewing the harsh soundscapes of his main gig Ootheca, Phillips recently began composing lush, meditative, ambient tracks to try and help lull stressed family members to sleep. He then decided to make it public under the pseudonym Glass Hive.
“Recently, my 12-year old had trouble sleeping and wanted to listen to white noise to drown out any worrisome thoughts or distracting sounds. I said, ‘Hey, I’ll make something for you like that but it will also have some calm music in it.’” remembers Phillips. “Working on this forced me to focus and stop excessively checking the news. And listening to it ended up helping to calm my catastrophic thoughts long enough to aid my own sleep as well. With any luck, the music might help other people in the same way.”
Ambient music was conceptualized by Brian Eno many years back to be utilitarian, and this is perhaps one of the most tender uses of the genre to date. Two tracks – “Calandrinia” and “Jack in the Pulpit” – are currently available on the Glass Hive Bandcamp, and they’re well worth a listen.
The Pauses launch Quarantunes video singles series
“It’s both freeing and exciting to have all of this extra time to be creative, but at the same time, it wears you down because you’re in limbo and are carrying this existential dread around all day, wondering where you’ll be in the next couple of months,” reflects Pauses leader Tierney Tough, candidly summing up the headspace of quite a few of us these days.
And yet, the local indie maestros and OW cover stars managed to rally virtually last weekend for a raucous, rousing and life-affirming cover of the 197 Harvey Danger nugget “Flagpole Sitta,” the first of a video series they’ve dubbed Quarantunes. “This Harvey Danger song seemed like the perfect way to start off the series and kind of describes our current mental state fairly well,” says Tough. “It’s also just such a fun one to play.”
Tough isn’t joking about the relevance of the song. the perversely hummable chorus of “I’m not sick but I’m not well/ and I’m so hot because I’m in hell” is almost too on-thenose, but energetic performances (distance be damned) and flourishes of humor like costumes and backup vocals courtesy a Pee-wee Herman doll keep things good and weird. “Pee-wee was very gracious with his time,” laughs Tough. Give this one a watch.
Southern Fried Sunday launches weekly virtual #StayHome Fest series
On Sunday, March 29, local roots music showcase Southern Fried Sunday (headed up by Jessica Pawli) loudly returned, albeit online, with #StayHome Fest, a valiant attempt to chase the quarantine blues away. Over the course of a long afternoon, a phalanx of performers including Hannah Harber and Thomas Wynn, Kaleigh Baker and Matt Walker, Matt Woods and more streamed in with full, heartfelt sets of toplevel country, folk and Americana – to say nothing of the official curbside catering, courtesy of the New Standard.
An installment is promised every weekend, with the next on Sunday, April 12. The tight camaraderie of the SFS extended musical family endures despite the gulf of physical (and social) distance.
Notable noise from local musicians and labels: Auto Chlor, Alien Witch, Tape Studies
Respect due to anyone who can get it together enough to put new music out into the world right now.
On Tuesday, March 31, local noise/ darkwave solo project Alien Witch released a new mini-album, Retrogression of a Dram, on their Bandcamp. The six tracks really mirror our recent moods, full of nervous, hypnotic, electronic grooves. Big-time Martin Rev influence on Retrogression, pretty timely given Rev’s penchant for finding hope and love in a dystopia. Te fulllength Seasonless World dropped the very next day. It’s more urgent and immediate, with some dark-synth anthems hidden in there.
Local post-rock trio Tape Studies – previously seen in the Weekly in a glowing This Little Underground review – released their surging debut single, “Hearts Are Low,” on Friday, April 3. And a blast from the (recent) past sure to please scene lifers, Central Florida tape label Illuminated Paths delved deep into their vaults last week and unleashed a cassette (with digital counterpart) of archival recordings from Moon Jelly-affiliated project Auto Chlor. It’s a sprawling, messy delight.
Local venues stream live sets old and new
The Timucua Arts Foundation are streaming shows from their vast archive regularly from their Facebook page. An upcoming highlight is Duo Beaux Arts on Friday, April 10. Winter Park’s the New Standard is moving forward with ambitious nightly Facebook Live streams of local artists playing on their stage with full sound system, lighting – the works. Keep an eye on their respective websites (as well as the Blue Bamboo Center, which is also releasing videos regularly) for more streamed shows.
Virtual dance nights feature major local DJs
Local DJs are also performing live on various social media platforms. Notably, the DJs of queer club night Yaasss are continuing their Wednesdays at Elixir on Instagram Live instead. And on Saturday, April 11, an all-star cadre of veteran house music DJs will “form like Voltron” for “The Orlando House Music Party, Vol. 7” live stream. Keep an eye on the Facebook event page for more details on the platform. Dancing is important, especially now. music@orlandoweekly.com
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Moses did 40 years’ worth of hard work on behalf of his people, delivering them out of slavery in Egypt. Yet God didn’t allow him to enter into the Promised Land. Why? At the end of his travails, he made a minor mistake that angered God beyond reason. Petty? Harsh? Very much so. I’m happy to say that your fate will be very different from Moses’. Some months from now, when your labors bring you to the brink of your own personal version of the Promised Land, not even a small error will prevent you from entering and enjoying it. And what you do in the coming weeks will help ensure that later success.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Built in the third century B.C., the Colossus of Rhodes was a monumental statue of the Greek sun god. It stood in the harbor of the island of Rhodes, and was called one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Alas: An earthquake struck the area 54 years after it was finished, knocking it over and smashing it into fragments. Three centuries later, many of the chunks still lay scattered around the harbor. I offer this as a teaching story, Taurus. If there are any old psychological ruins lying around in your psyche, I encourage you to conduct an imaginary ritual in which you visualize throwing those ruins into a big bonfire. Clear the slate for the new beginnings that will be available once the COVID-19 crisis has settled down.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “Argue with anything else,” writes author Philip Pullman, “but don’t argue with your own nature.” Amen! That’s always good advice for you Geminis, and it will be especially crucial in the coming weeks. A certain amount of disputation and challenging dialogue with other people will be healthy for you, even an effective way to get clarity and advance your aims. (Don’t overdo it, of course.) But you must promise never to quarrel with or criticize your own nature. You should aim at being a radiant bastion of inner harmony and a powerhouse of self-love. Do whatever’s necessary to coax all your different aspects to work together in sweet unity.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) Like many Cancerians, painter Marc Chagall cultivated an intimate relationship with his dreams and fantasies. His fellow artist Pablo Picasso remarked, “When Chagall paints, you do not know if he is asleep or awake. Somewhere or other inside his head there must be an angel.” Being a Crab myself, I know how essential it is for us to be in close connection with reverie and the imagination. Every now and then, though, there come occasions when the demands of the material world
need our extra, focused attention – when our dreamy tendencies need to be rigorously harnessed in behalf of pragmatism. Now is one of those times.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Is there an influence you’re ready to outgrow, Leo? Are there teachers who have given you all they have to offer, and now you need to go in search of new founts of inspiration and education? Have you squeezed all possible value out of certain bright ideas and clever theories that no longer serve you? Are you finished with old sources of excitement that have lost their excitement? These are the kinds of questions I encourage you to ask yourself in the coming weeks. It’ll be a favorable time to celebrate the joyful art of liberation – to graduate from what might have been true once upon a time, and prepare for the wideopen future after the COVID-19 crisis has mellowed.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Your words of power in the coming days are simple: deep, low, down, below, dig, dive and descend. I invite you to meditate on all the ways you can make them work for you as metaphors and use them to activate interesting, nourishing feelings. There’ll be very little worth exploring on the surface of life in the coming weeks, Virgo. All the hottest action and most valuable lessons will be blooming in the fertile darkness.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Before the COVID-19 crisis arrived, were you ensconced in roles that were good fits for your specific temperament and set of talents? Did you occupy niches that brought out the best in you and enabled you to offer your best gifts? Were there places that you experienced as power spots – where you felt at home in the world and at peace with your destiny? Once you’ve meditated on those questions for a while, Libra, I’ll ask you to shift gears: Meditate on how you’d like to answer similar questions about your life in the future. Once this crazy time has passed, what roles will be good fits for you? What niches will bring out the best in you? What will be your power spots?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “Fen” is a word that’s not used much these days. It means a marsh or a boggy lowland. Decades ago, Scorpio poet Marianne Moore used it in a short poem. She wrote, “If you will tell me why the fen appears impassable, I will tell you why I think that I can cross it if I try.” In my opinion, that’s an apt battle cry for you right now. You shouldn’t be upset if people tell you that certain things are impossible for you to do. You should be grateful! Their discouragement will rile up your deep intelligence and inspire you to figure out how you can indeed do those things.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “Goodness alone is never enough,” wrote author Robert A. Heinlein. “A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.” I think that’s an interesting thought for you to consider during the coming weeks, Sagittarius. If you want your care and compassion to be effective, you’ll have to synergize them with tough intelligence. You may even need to be a bit ferocious as you strive to ensure that your worthy intentions succeed and the people you love get what they need.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Are there any ways in which you have been wishywashy in standing up for what you believe in? Have you shied away from declaring your true thoughts and feelings about important issues that affect you and the people you care about? Have you compromised your commitment to authenticity and integrity for the sake of your ambition or financial gain? In asking you these questions, I am not implying that the answers are yes. But if in fact you have engaged in even a small amount of any of those behaviors, now is an excellent time to make corrections. As much as possible, Capricorn, focus on being trustworthy and transparent.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Physicist Edward Teller believed there is no such thing as “exact science.” And in his view, that’s a good thing. “Science has always been full of mistakes,” he said. But he added that they’re mostly “good mistakes,” motivating scientists to push closer toward the truth. Each new mistake is a better mistake than the last, and explains the available evidence with more accuracy. I suspect that you’ve been going through a similar process in your personal life, Aquarius. And I predict that the good mistakes you’ve recently made will prove to be useful in the long run.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Few astrologers would say that you Pisceans are masters of the obvious or connoisseurs of simplicity. You’re not typically renowned for efficiency or celebrated for directness. Your strength is more likely to be rooted in your emotional riches, your ability to create and appreciate beauty, your power to generate big dreams and your lyrical perspective on life. So my oracle for you this time may be a bit surprising. I predict that in the coming weeks, your classic attributes will be very useful when applied to well-grounded, down-to-earth activities. Your deep feelings and robust imagination can be indispensable assets in your hard work on the nuts and bolts.
